YUGEN Gallery will be holding Hokuto Ichibayashi's solo exhibition "Hidden things" from October 7th (Saturday) to October 12th (Thursday).

A character who runs wild and seems to stick out of the screen. It is surrounded by a cloud-like substance, and the events that are occurring are obscured.  Hokuto Ichibayashi is a painter who abstractly creates knockabout comedy sequences in comic. This exhibition, ``Hidden things,'' will feature approximately 10 three-dimensional panel works that stir the viewer's imagination in their invisible parts of the art works.

The classic is cutting edge

When Hokuto Ichibayashi was a high school student, he aspired to become a manga artist by submitting his works to publishers. He aimed to attend an art university to improve his painting skills, and the art school he attended happened to specialize in Japanese painting, which led him to pursue Japanese painting. Majored in Japanese painting at Kyoto Seika University.

He was exposed to traditional art on a daily basis in Kyoto, and even after graduating from university, he was motivated to create Japanese paintings. However, he said, ``Japanese paintings take a long time to complete, and even though I am full of ideas, I find it difficult to create what I want to create.'' I felt like I was at my limit, thinking, ``I can't cut it.'' Images that could not be contained within a support material arose, and a desire for expression that tried to go beyond the flat surface grew, leading to my current style of production using acrylic paints and three-dimensional panels.

While departing from the subject matter and materials unique to Japanese paintings, Ichibayashi uses traditional techniques as a base and incorporates color schemes and digital graphic compositions with a metropolitan feel. We use modern materials such as Saran wrap, masking tape, and packaging cushioning material, and the motifs are images collected from the Internet. A particularly important motif is video games.

``Works of art that remain as classics today must have depicted the cutting edge of their times.It's not just the subject matter, but also the method used.  A work that tells the story of the era in which you were born and raised can be a classic.That's what I think. If it's a video game

He says that the video games he has played since childhood shaped the era, and he incorporates into his works the stories of games, the scenery seen through music, and what he feels from the world view of games. Ichibayashi's works, which are based on purple and blue, are also reminiscent of ukiyo-e prints, especially ``Aizuri'', in that they catchily express the universal view of people living in that era. 

hidden facts

“Ancient murals and ceramics depicting events and life at the time not only fade over time, but some were intentionally erased by the people who lived them. When some of the sources of knowledge are missing, no one knows the whole story.The viewers' imaginations are stirred up, and various noises are created.''

The work ``hidden things,'' which is also the title of this exhibition, is a homage to the ``Alexander the Great Mosaic,'' which is considered one of the greatest mosaic masterpieces. The masterpiece, which underwent restoration for the first time in about 100 years in 2021 and is still being considered by many researchers, has large areas on its surface that have fallen off. The theme of this work is the ambiguity of history and the uncertainty of human beings, based on the concept that there may be hidden facts that overturn historical perception and even the values ​​of painting.

``In a world where the population continues to increase and the thoughts of different races and religions are becoming unstable and the world is becoming increasingly noisy, it is becoming difficult to obtain accurate information, including news.Everyone is feeling confused about this every day. ” 

affirmation of ambiguity

Living in times of uncertainty, with our identities wavering, we tend to seek a single, certain answer. However, it is also human beings who are confused because they cannot find something.

Something drawn with clear coloring or dot patterns behind a smoky cloud. In Ichibayashi's work, which comically depicts someone not knowing what they are fighting against or what is happening, a cutting-edge yet classic human figure emerges.

The works on display this time are made from deformable panels using the "Shop Bot," a tool that processes wood based on digital data. From flat to three-dimensional works. ``Right now, I'm more interested in the form than the content,'' says Ichibayashi. The exhibition's theme and the artist's true intentions are obscured, and noise is born.